Fantasia
by Dr.Jose
Summary: The story occurs in a magical medieval-themed world, it follows the quests of many characters, mainly a young shepherd named Juan Rocux.
1. The daily life of Juan Rocux

_**Fantasia**_

_**Arc1:**__ Battle of villages_

_**Chapter1:**__ The daily life of Juan Rocux_

In a magical world the empire of Féena existed …a vast territory ruled by the capital of Hatena, but with time the royal family came to weakness as their descendants were swallowed by tyrannic greed, terrorizing the peaceful land of their anscestors.

Even with the powerful authority the empire had, its golden era came to an end, and many small kingdoms were liberated from the main capital, forming their own free lands of different races of magical beings.

However, our story starts at the southern gulf of the main continent, at the village known as "Ardneria" a village known to be inhabited by the race called "Beastmen" as their name suggests, they are known for their brute force and short temper, not to mention their distenctive bodies; they had strong muscular builds that are somehow similiar to those of humans, thin layer of pinkish fur that covers their pale bodies, feline facial features of eyes and ears, beside having only four fingers for each hand and three toes for each foot, and their special magic power, that consists of manipulating flames, eating fire and rocks as a way to replenish their stamina.

Despite they are a fight-loving clan, they forced themselves to peace as they knew that war will bring nothing but death and sorrow, so they changed to smithery and fish hunting.

Apart from that they had something toward grazing wild goats, thanks to a special member of their clan, a young man around seventeen, his name was Juan, from the family of the famous blacksmith Rocux, he was totally different among his tribe, because his skin was a bit darker, he barely had hair on his body, he had weaker build, five fingers for each hand, five toes for each foot, dark eyes, orange hair that's partially covered with a red and green bandana that has a noticable crimson jewel with the shape of two intersected diamonds. However unlike his clan people he was a bit with the ability to communicate with animals by understanding their feelings.

He's usually seen alone on the hills with herds of goats, carrying a book of poetry or novels of adventuring, hiding his love of journeys under his shy calm appearance.

It was mid-day, as usual he leads goats back to their respective barns, while shuting the doors, he turns to meet his "twin" brother named "Roné", who was unlike him a complete beastman, with fiery red spiky hair, yellow cat-like eyes, two short diagonal lines of dark fur coming from each side of his defined face that ends with a small goatee, he wears an orange bandana in a different style than Juan does, a short green jacket that leaves his chest bare, and short red pants.

"Hi Roné, how was your day?" Juan asked his brothers nicely…

Roné calmed for a sec leaving a wide giggly face, then he pulled a small wrapped gift from his pocket and gave it to his brother: "Happy birthday Bro" he said.

Juan unwrapped the gift quickly, it was an adventurer book: "This is Alexer's book about his quests on the forgotten realms…it's the complete edition! Roné how can I ever thank you?! I always wanted this you are amaz…" Juan thanked his brother before his eyes were filled with tears…

"Calm down dude! Tears are no manly, I can bring anything for my bro, remember this is what Demeteri told me once before he…you know, left us"...

"Yeah, I still visit him sometimes, but he insists that he never return to the village again" Juan added with a bit of depression…

"However, There's something I want you to see" Roné asked his brother, and started to chew some small rocks: "Just wait a little more" he said before spitting a blob of lava that burned a small pile of hay next to them…

"Incredible! you found a way to use lava magic" Juan expressed his surprise…

"Truely, now Yerra will crawl to date me!" Roné said with a sly grin…

"Who's Yerra?" Juan asked…

"You know the hottest chick around here, the one with the huge puppies, that works at the inn!" Roné answered then added: "How come you not to know her?"…

Juan scratched his head: "Because as you can see girls disgust me, I am hairless, I don't look like a beastman in anyway, I can't even eat rocks nor produce fire, I'm useless" the depressed young man answered…

"Well you are not to me!" Roné tried to cheer his brother: "Here I brought this with me from the usual fishing trip I had this morning" as he pulled a bottle with a letter in it…

"Oh! so Zoru send me a reply" Juan said before taking the message from the bottle…

"Who's this Zoru anyway?" Roné asked…

"He's my pen-mate" Juan answered…

"More details please…" Roné asked…

"Well he's a ragon, he said he's a fisherman's son, he told me too much about his village of Sumeria, can you believe that they live on a giant ice land moved and manipulated by their own king and they can…"

"Boring!" Roné interrupted: " Those fish faces are just boring, I mean they always loose to us in the old days, history book said so!"…

"Well that's your opinion, but I believe they are more peace loving creatures than us beastmen" Juan said before heading back to home.

-**Ragons:** _another magical clan that inhabit the land of Féena, they're tall pale creatures covered in scales, bearing more ressemblance to humans than beastmen do, they have usually wide black eyes and pointy noses, having the ability to breath under water thanks to gills grown on each side of their necks, and opposingto Ardnerians they are water magic specialists, and like mentioned earlier they live on their village of Sumeria, they were once in a war against Ardneria but both villages' leaders agreed on a permaneant peace truce to prevent future losts of both sides_-

The sunset came, Juan had his dinner, and as the usual schedule he headed to the library to read a book before he goes to sleep, there he met the village's leader who's known as Luffine the sage; a bald midget beastman around eighty years old, with a long beard and moustache, he was wearing a traditiona brown robe, with the village symbol on its back; a diamond that has fire coming out of its top.

He smiled at the youngman and saluted him, the young man bowed before his leader but the latter refused:

"It's okay kid, forget the formality, here we are all one family" the sage said…

"Hehe thanks lord Luffine, so what brought you here?" Juan asked…

"I couldn't sleep so I thought reading some old poems, what about you? What brought Rocux' brilliant child here?" the sage asked…

The young man blushed then he turned serious answering: "I came to read some adventure novel, then I shall head to bed then…"

"I see that you want to ask me something… go ahead" the sage said after noticing a bit of depression in Juan's eyes…

Juan hesitated a bit but he asked: "I always wondered lord Luffine, am I really a beastman? I mean I don't even look like my brothers Demeteri or even Roné who's supposed to be my twin? Is it really that my father was cursed and one of his sons had to be like this?"…

The sage closed his book and smiled a bit: "Juan…my boy I can't answer you, but remember no matter how you look, you are inside your family, you may not understand this at your young age, but once you grow up you'll learn that the true essence of being an Ardnerian isn't your appearence but it's your soul" the old man answered Juan with confidence…

These words calmed Juan's heart, and with the sage's goodbyes he returned home to take a rest for another morning, but before closing his eyes he thought of reading the letter his pen mate send him, he opened the paper to find that his friend sent him an empty message, his exclamation pushed him to suspect that something was wrong about it, he turned off his lantern to discover that the words were written in a special ink that glows in the dark, after reading that message he jumped off his bed and headed toward the shore, with fear on his face, and when he achieved the place, what Zolu warned him from was already there…

To be continued


	2. The ragons invasion starts

_**Fantasia**_

_**Arc1:**__ Battle of villages_

_**Chapter2: **__The ragons invasion starts_

After reading the warning from his friend Zolu, Juan headed directly toward the shore, where he saw a group of ragons walking toward his village, they were around thirty men equipped with harpoons and swords, he hid himself behind a rock holding his breathes, drowned in fear, he couldn't move his feet and run to warn his clan of the approaching danger.

A tear dropped from his eye on his hand, making him remeber what the sage told him about being an ardnerian isn't about his size or power, but about his soul, and how they still consider him a family member despite his different appearence, so he stepped on his fears and ran as fast as he can, but alas the young man tripped, and the enemy noticed him so they sent one of them to catch Juan.

The young man tried to take his balance and continue to run but he seems that he twisted his ankle, giving the ragon the opportunity to catch him.

"Hehe…well well well, what have we here? A human lad!" the ragon said with a crazy stare on his face…

"Damn you! I'm an Ardnerian!" Juan shouted at him dropping some tears…

"Whatever you say" the ragon said before raising his dagger: "Farewell…Ardnerian!" delievering a stab to Juan who shut his eyes waiting for his death, but a fiery fist hit the enemy delievering him away, it was Roné who came to save his brother…

"Are you alright bro?" Roné aked Juan after helping him to stand…

"Um, yeah but how…?"

"I noticed you left your papers on the floor so I took them, I've read the one with the warning and so I followed you" Roné answered…

"What about the others?...the ragons are attacking the village!" Juan said in fear…

An explosion is heard coming from the village: "Well I told the others, so they are giving them fishes the ol' one two!" Roné answered with his usual sly grin…

And so the brothers headed to their village to witness the defeat of the enemies, who were tied to a pole, Rocux **–Juan and Roné's father-**, approached the ragons, and started to shout at them: "Bastards! How dare you attack us?!"

**-Rocux:** As mentioned before he's Juan, Roné, and Demeteri's father, he's a famous blacksmith beastman, he's a muscular big man around fifty years old, he has sharp red eyes, short beard and thick moustache, and a noticable large scar that goes from the middle of his half-bald head through his forehead to stop above his left eyebrow, he wears a siver plate in his belly, covered with a thick brown leather mail, and cuffy pants, he's a short tempered man and known for his reckless decisions and cruelity-

"Easy there Rocux ol'man, they are no match for us here!" a young beastman commented…

"we'll send them wrapped in fish guts to their king by morning like nothing happened" another one added…

"Maybe we should tell the sage about this" a third man suggested…

"Your old geezer can do nothing with our new ruler…hehe, flame eaters!" a ragon said with an evil grin…

And so strangly the hostaged enemies started to leak water from their body forming a large pond as they started to incantate: "Transportation water formula, Cast!"…

And so more ragons started to appear from the pond, surrounding the beastmen from all sides:

"No match for you?! We'll see about that!" an imprisoned ragon insulted the beastmen…

And so the two clanmen engaged in another fight, but this time the number of the water dwellers was overwhelming for the Ardenerians, so the battle scale leaned toward the invaders' side.

With this the land owners fell defeated against the large numbers of the ragons, one of the prisoners approached Rocux and started to kick him in the face saying: "Hehe! Bow before us flame eaters!", but he was hit by a large fireball shot from Roné who was standing on a rooftop:

"Stay out of the old man fish face!" he shouted preparing another fire spell with his hands…

Unaware a water dweller teleporeted before him, Juan encouraged himself and tried to defend his brother but he was kicked down to the ground, Roné was in danger but he wasn't attentive, the ragon jumped at him with a sword but suddenly a red magic circle appeared under the enemy releasing an explosion that pushed him away, Roné turned around to see that the sage of their village was the one who saved him…

Luffine jumped to the middle of the battle field, the invaders looked down to him and one of them mocked the situation: "Heh, so this is the legendary Luffine? An old midget geezer! How depressing!"…

"Sorry for failing your expectations young ragon!" the sage said with a wide smile and a goofy accent…

"Don't think that just because you are an old man we ain't fighting ya!" another ragon shouted…

"Huh? What have you said young man? I believe I'm too old to be hearing you" the sage asked while putting his hand near his ear…

And so the taunted fighters raided the old man, who simply and in a blink released some of his magic force pushing them away immobilizing them…

"Monster!...he's a monster!" a defeated ragon said in fear…

"And you bastards attacked this monster's home and hurted his family! Get lost or I will no longer hold myself!" shouted the sage with an angry scary face,setting fire on his right palm…

Despite the warning the invaders didn't move an inch, the sage warned them again but it was useless, they were stunned, as mist started to cover the area, one of them laughed saying: "It has started! The great invasion has started!"…

"Invasion?...what in hell name is going on?!" Roné asked…

"There! Everyone look toward the shore!" Juan said while pointing to the southern gulf…

The sea was covered in thick fog but there was a shadow of an approaching body coming, a giant one, it was the whole village of Sumeria carried by a giant ice golem that was walking slowly toward the village.

"What in blazes?!" Rocux expressed his surprise…

"Sayoh! You wouldn't be planning to do it!" the sage said to himself, before casting a spell on himself that made him covered in a silver knight armor.

On the head of the golem there was a cloacked tall man standing, he smirked widely before starting drawing on the air with both his right index and middle finger, accompained with some incantations, shortly before the ice giant opens his mouth widely and an enormous blue magic circle in front of it was formed, distinctively the circle carried the symbol of Sumeria; a shark that's pierced by three harpoons, then the golem released a powerful beam-like shockwave through the circle toward Ardeneria…

"This is bad!" Luffine said," Everyone take cover!" he added…

And so the old leader started to do some signs with his hands finishing it by clapping and saying: "I call the power of the raging mountain!" casting an earth spell which manifested as many solid lava pillars around the village that extended to form a thick multi-layered barrier around the area, protecting the towns people from being hit by the Sumerian giant attack…

"Incredible!" Juan said, "This is just…Wow!" Roné added…

Luffine turned toward his clanmen: "Rocux…take everyone to the shelters, I shall say few words to Sayoh" he ordered his people…

The blacksmith had nothing but to obey the orders of his superior and take his sons and the injured beastmen with him to evacuate the village.

The sage took a deep breath, "Sayoh, I don't know what's with you, but alas my old friend" said Luffine before covering himself in flames and headeing like a striking meteor toward the cloacked man who turned himself into mist, the two clashed a bit in the air to land on the land of the village of Sumeria.

"Sayoh! What's the meaning of this? all eh?" Luffine asked…

The cloaked man removed his veil slowly then commented: "Hoi, Hoi, it've been years, you've become aged…uncle Luffine" finishing his words with a wide grin…

"You are…Impossible!" he said after seeing the man's true face, a tall slender ragon with a handsome face, relatively large black eyes with red markings on their outer sides, pointy nose and small mouth, a thin moustache that ends with a small goatee, he was bare chested, wearing a lage black pants that carries the symbol of Sumeria on the right knee, as he was equipped with a rapier that carries the word "Rocux" on its hilt.

The sage stood idely by as the image of an innocent young ragon passed through his memories, then he added in surprise: "Ramusus! You are the king!?"…

The man laughed widely then answered: "True I'm now Lord Ramusus the sage of Sumeria!"

Luffine pulled himself togather and his face turned serious: "Even if you were once the child of my old friend, attacking my family isn't tolerable, either you take your men and return to your sea, or I will make my fist talk instead!" the sage warned Ramusus…

The latter responded by yawning and pulling his rapier.

"Then I have no other choice for you, prepare yourself my child!" Luffine said while pulling a spiky round-headed hammer from a magic portal.

To be continued


	3. Ardneria collapses

_**Fantasia**_

_**Arc1:**__ Battle of villages_

_**Chapter3: **__Ardneria collapses_

And so Luffine the sage of Ardneria engaged in a fight against Ramusus the young sage of Sumeria, started by few weapon clashes, but it seems that both of the combattants were equal, each move was countred firmly; a slash from Ramusus is guarded by Luffine's hammer, the latter passed some of his magic power to his weapon making the sledge grow larger, to deliever a heavy blunt to the Sumerian king, but his reflexions were sharp that he turned himself into mist before being hit.

"Not bad, kid" Luffine complimented his foe.

"You too…for an old man" Ramusus said, then he sheathed his rapier, "Now why don't we let go of this old style and act seriously!" he added before clapping his hands that started to glow in blue shining aura.

And in a flash the young sage released a volley of ice lances, that surrounded the older one, who covered himself in a red sphere of magic power, wich caused the ice to evaporate in mere seconds.

Ramusus didn't miss the chance and used this moment to attack the old sage with an ice charged fist, the punch pinned Luffine to a pillar nearby, the water king approached his defeated foe insulting him:

"Aged flame eater! Say hi to father on the other size!" as he pulled his rapier then rapidly returning it "No…not yet I still need you" and so he grabbed the fire sage from the collar, suddenly he smelled some strange scent similiar to that of sulfur, making the body of Luffine explode.

The smoke is lifted, and from it Ramusus emerged, with few flips he regained his balance, and turned to see that his enemy didn't get hurt.

"You used an explosive lava copy, heh…how decieving!" the young warrior said.

"It pains me to hurt an old friend's son like you, but this is the end lad!" Luffine said as he started to draw a magic formula –_similiar to his clan's symbol_- in the air, causing a huge fiery rock sphere to materialize above the water sage.

Just before the collision, Ramusus casted a freezing spell that destroyed the fire magic, but he wasn't aware that he was surrounded by a strong magic barrier created earlier by his enemy while he was distracted.

"This is your last chance lad, I don't want to see blood in the last days of my life, please give up! Don't make me regret doing this to my dear friend's son" Luffine said.

Ramusus smiled a little bit, then he materialized some waving blob, "Have you noticed?" he said then added: "I inherited almost everything from my father, except his sense of justice!" before summoning a young woman inside that blob, she was around seventeen years old, with flowing black hair, and handsome face, wearing a long scarlet red dress and a noticeable ruby as a neckleace.

"Yera!" the old sage shouted.

"Some beautiful granddaughter you have there uncle Luffine, alas she is about to be incnerated by her grand-daddy's spell, or is she?" the water sage said with an evil grin.

"Release her now! This battle is between us two!" Luffine shouted with anger.

"I never liked fair play myself specially with someone of a different tribe!" said Ramusus calmly.

"Don't you dare lay your dirty hand on her!" the enraged sage threatened.

But Ramusus pulled a small ice dagger and pointed it to the hostage's neck saying: "Things don't go like this uncle, you should say something like _please, I'll do anything to release my dear Yera_".

The old sage calmed down and leaned his head a little bit asking: "What is it you want? Is it the land?".

"Land?" Ramusus exclamated, "Hahaha…you think I came here for this stupid piece of land? How naive!" he added with a smirk.

Luffine closed his fist tightly asking: "Then why would you sacrifice your clanmen like this?".

"_Yusseir's Judgement_, that sums my goal of attacking your land!" the water sage answered confidently.

"Idiot!" Luffine shouted at his enemy, then he added: "Asking for such powerful monsterous magic is forbidden, this spell is entrusted to our tribe for a millenium by the great Zheinian brothers, I can't let that magic fell into the wrong hands!".

"Wrong?! Let me get this correct, you say that flame eaters like you deserve that powerful magic more than the clan that's directly descend from the younger brother!"

And within his hesitation on either give the magic or not, the silence was broken by Yera's shouting at her old man: "Gramps! Never! Never give these bastards our treasure, it's a symbol that we are rightous and they are the one who have to bow before us! It's our prid…" before she was choked and passed out by water released from the water mage's hand.

"She had a quite strong personality, she'd make a great maid for me" Ramusus said before turning toward the old sage: "Now either it's your Yera, or Yusseir's Judgement, you choose in three, two, time out!" the Sumerian leader said as he pointed his dagger to the girl's neck.

"Yera!" the old man shouted while running toward his granddaughter, but a water copy of Ramusus has materialized behind him to lock his head in a water sphere, that made him vommit an orange liquid from his mouth: "What in blazes is this?!" Luffine asked.

"Oh that is called water element's version of magic crusher, it forces all the magic energy in your body to _leak_…literally, leaving you nothing but an old geezer!" Ramusus explained his technique.

Luffine started to loose his balance as he kneeled trying to catch his breathes, his enemy delievered a powerful kick that made him fall unconscious.

And so the water sage grabbed the old man from the collar and rised him in the air, casting a holgram projecting spell that can be seen from the village where the Ardnerian were watching their leader getting defeated.

"Hear my words low beastmen! Today is a great day for Sumeria! Today we witness the fall of Ardneria and rise of the new rulers of both the sea and the land! Bow before your new king low flame eaters!" were Ramusus' words announcing the slavery of the Ardnerians.

"What the hell?! We ain't surrendering to those fish suckers!" Roné shouted.

"Ronél my boy I believe we have nothing we can do!" Rocux said while pulling his sons back.

Juan on the other hand felt so much fear witnessing the ragons descending from the ice golem, destroying houses, taking women, kids, old people, and arresting men, only a small group of beastmen managed to escape in order to come up with a proper plan to restore their land back.

Two days passed, Rocux and some fighters of Ardneria were gathered in a camp near the northern borderlines of their village, attempting to organize a rebelling force:

"I believe if we gathered all our fire magic we'll manage to destroy their ice golem, and with this their village we'll collapse on the ground, making an opening to us" a beastman suggested..

"It's no use" Juan said in a shy accent.

"What are you talking about li'l boy? our fire magic always was the best offense against their ice!" the beastman asked the young man.

"I know that but their golem is molded with their sage's magical flow, so no matter how much we attack it will restore itself automatically leaving us opened to be attacked" Juan explained his opinion.

"The kid's right, we should think of something more clever than jus tour regular hit and run" Rocux added.

"Then we should take some hostages, I'm sure there're some ragons we can defeat at our village and with them we can exchange for our families!" another man suggested.

"That won't work too" Rocux said.

"Truely, we've seen that he was ready to blast his men with ice cannon if lord Luffine wasn't there to save us all, he doesn't think of his clan as we do" Juan added.

Suddenly a fire burst exploded in the sky Juan recognized it to be his brother Roné's sign so he headed toward it as quick as he could, and there he met his brother who captured and tied a young male ragon.

_-He was tall as it with all his clan, long black hair tied up like a braid, a rectangular face with small dark eyes, pointy nose, with a noticeable small vertical scar on the right cheek, he was wearing, a necklace made of pearls and shark teeth, a tight short dark blue shirt that only covers his chest, a tight short dark green pants covered with a piece of black cloth that goes down from his waist to reach the level of his knees, marked with his clan symbol.-_

"Bro! Bro! I caught this bastard trying to spy on us!" Roné said to Juan while trying to cathc his breaths.

"Really? He doesn't seem to be that sort of people" Juan said while looking sharply to the ragon.

"Dude! Your bro's right! I came here to help you!" the ragon said while trying to free himself, but he was punched by Roné who threatened him by setting fire on his fist.

"Calm down Roné, maybe he really wants to help us" Juan calmed his brother.

"Blah! C'mon Juan! you can't be that sissy!" Roné yelled at his brother.

"Juan?...are you Juan Rocux?!" the young ragon asked.

"Yes that's me, do I know you?" Juan asked aswell.

"Dude it's me Zolu, Zolu Kura!" the ragon answered revealing his identity.

To be continued


	4. Zolu & Kura

_**Fantasia**_

_**Arc1:**__ Battle of villages_

_**Chapter4: **__Zolu & Kura_

Roné managed to capture one of the ragons, who's shortly revealed himself to be Zolu Kura, Juan's pen-mate, the ragon seemed to be different from his clan that he offered his help to the beastmen.

"So you are Juan Rocux…the guy who sends me all those letters? Aren't you supposed to be more beastman, and less human?" Zolu asked.

"Um…Yeah, I know it's strange but yup that's me" Juan answered.

"Enough of the chitchat! What do you want fish head?!" Roné asked roughly.

Zolu ignored Roné and asked Juan"So this is your brother…what was his name again? Roby? Loony? Loki?..." finishing his question with a fake naive tone.

"Roné! And you better stop with this crap!" the angered young man said.

"Zolu please we are not in a time for laughter, you said you wanted to help us, I believe you can, but as you see the others can't fully trust you." Juan said in a polite accent.

"I know that, but believe me, I know a secret passage to the prison where you can free your friends, we too didn't like how the new king acts, since lord Sayoh died, our life became less safer than before as lord Ramusus announced more taxes, and banishes all those who refuse to obey his orders" Zolu said.

"And what makes us sure that you aren't an agent for him, and you won't betray us?" Roné asked.

"He sent me a message to warn us a night before the attack, I think this is more than enough to trust the man" Juan answered.

"Nah…am not feelin' any good comin' of him, we should ask dad" Roné suggested.

And so Juan and Roné had to take their "hostage" to the camp.

"I dunno, we can't trust'em ragons, even if he was your friend" Rocux said.

"But please believe me, you don't have a chance if you decided to face us directly, you'll loose your freedom like many villages did before!" Zolu said.

"We still can't trust him…" a beastman said.

"Well then I do" Juan interrupted the conversation.

"Brother?!" Roné exclamated.

"Juan you stay outta this!" Rocux said.

"No…I think this might work either ways" the young man said in confidence.

"How so? What am I sayin'?!...I ain't lettin' my li'l boy risk his life!" the old man shouted at his son.

"Isn't this what a man does?" Juan said with a light smile then he added: "I shall risk my life to save my family…Ardneria, and if they caught me or Zolu was really fooling us then they only caught a wimpy useless beastman."

"Enough! I said you ain't goin'!" Rocux shouted at his child.

"But dad…" Juan eyes got filled with tears, but he wiped them quickly to complete his words: "I really want to be a help, I always felt that I'm a burden to this village, I couldn't even run to warn you, I never was able to carry a hammer to help you on forging weapons, I never was able to swallow flames nor eat rocks, I knew that most villager disgust me, and this is my chance to prove that I can be as a beastman as everyone else, and if I failed then at least I was a man enough to try!".

And so Juan walked away with Zolu toward the shore leaving his father in silence, Roné on the other hand couldn't hold himself: "I'm going too dad! You guys wait here and when we free the prisoners, I give you the signal and you crush them fish heads! Ok dad?!" Roné told his father while running to catch up with his brother.

"Like father like son, eh Rocux?" and old beastman told the blacksmith.

"It seems that I'm gettin' old…faster than I thought" Rocux said with a smile.

And so Juan and Zolu reached the eastern shore, this rocky edge is mostly used by Sumerian for fishing, but now since it's a war era, the place became abandoned.

"So what' your plan?" Juan asked.

"That's our plan" Zolu answered while pointing to a faraway whirlpool surrounded by sharp pointy rocks.

"And…?" Juan said.

"It seems as a normal vortex in the middle of the sea, but it's actually a teleportation path, we usually use it to load our marchandise toward the main storage in Sumeria, of course you need to be a ragon to use it or at least to be in contact with one" the ragon explained.

"So this where you bastards hide your fishes?!" Roné asked when he suddenly appeared behind the two men.

"Roné!" Juan said in joy then he added: "You followed us?!".

"O'course I did, I can't let my bro go in an adventures alone! We are family in the end" the beastman said with a grin.

"Oh this is just great!" Zolu said showing no interest, which made both of the beastman and the ragon to exchange stares of disrespect.

"Guys!" Juan shouted at them: "We need to focus on our mission!".

"As I was saying, when we pass through the vortex, we'll be able to reach the main storage, which is nearby the castle, from there we can sneak into the castle, then to the jail dungeon, then we free your families, we make an escape for the women and kids, and then we send a signal to your rebellion forces, my clan will be trapped, you defeat them…and this is the plan" Zolu explained his plan with confidence.

"Stupid plan as I expected…fish head!" Roné commented.

And so the two entered another futile argument, to be interrupted by Juan who yelled at them to stop, and started to explain the flaws in his friend's plan:

"Ok, first of all we are heading to a storage; meaning that there're guards surrounding that place, and propably they are there all day long"

"That's no problem, my old man's taking care of this!" Zolu said.

"Great, then the second flaw is the way we are going to sneak into the castle; me and Roné are very noticeable, and easy to be caught, if we count that I can't fight"

"Don't worry about that, I can make you enter the castle easily, because I work there at night…a part-time job" the ragon said.

"Well, um…that's great! you planned all this, but there still something…Roné you tell him" the young man said while blushing.

"Oh that thing…" Roné added while holding his laughter.

"The hell! Tell me what is it?!" Zolu shouted.

"Okay, okay the whole idea is that Juan can't swim" Roné said before laughing.

"That's not funny!" Juan said to his brother then he turned to Zolu to tell him: "I apologize, it's some problem I have since birth, I cannot tolerate water surfaces, I feel terrified by just being a knee length drown in water…it's lame I know".

"That won't be a problem" Zolu said, then his mouth bulged like a toad, to release a huge water sphere, that transformed immediately into a large bubble: "Here you go this will help us to travel toward that whirlpool".

"Amazing!" Juan expressed his surprise.

"Meh…not a big deal!" Roné complained while scratching his ear.

And so the three young men ride the bubble that led them directly to the teleportation passage, where they managed to pass into the main storage of the ragons village; a vast room where walls, floor, and ceiling are molded with magic ice as it with everything in Sumeria, illuminated by a shining blue crystal, piles of fishes of all sorts are seen into that room, but our heros didn't care so much as they headed toward the large steel door, after several knocks from Zolu, an adult man's voice is heard on the other side of the door:

"Who goes there?" the voice asked.

"Father it's me, I brought them…" Zolu answered.

The large door opens slowly and a ragon enters the room, he was Kura Ness; a tall ragon with short messy black hair, a rectangular face like his son, black eyes that seem to reflect sadness, small beard, he wears a dirty white shirt, with some ragged black loose pants, with his hands wrapped in bandages, he seems to lost his left leg as he replaced it with a wooden one.

He gave Roné and Juan a cruel stare, which was responded by the beastman's salutation: "Hi ! cool leg you got there! It looks so badass!".

Juan was shocked of his brother's rudeness, he tried to scold him but Kura responded by "Um, Yeah…I think".

"Follow me" he added, leading the three young men to another room, which appeared to be a workers room, there he served them some grilled fishes and soup.

"This is so generous of you , thank you" Juan said politely.

"But back to think why do you help us? Why would you betray your clan?" Roné said while stuffing his mouth with food.

"Roné! Stop being so nosey!" Juan scolded his brother.

"It's okay kid…he's right, yet he's wrong" Kura said, these words made the beastman confused.

"I'm not betraying my village, I'm helping it to return to its golden age as before" Kura said while removing bandages from his right hand revealing a sever cut.

"Father?!" Zolu exclamated.

"It's okay Zolu, they need to hear the story, after all it's fated to youngsters to learn from the elderlies' mistakes" the old man calmed his sons.

And so the old man started to tell his short tale:

"_As you beastmen may know, we ragons are rulers of the sea, we lived since thousand years on this land in peace, our civilization was growing better and better into a golden age, as it was perfected in the era of his majesty lord Sayoh, because we always lived in peace, but time has changed…lord Sayoh died three years ago, and from that day his son Ramusus took control over our land, we thought he will be like his anscestors, but alas…he was a power crazy man, he engaged his people into endless wars against villages, some we've won, others we've lost..._"

"So you lost your leg in one of these wars?!" Roné asked.

"The story is a bit longer than that kid" Kura answered, then he completed his story:

"One day the new king's insanity led him to challenge king Zoldeo…"

"King…Zoldeo! This is insane!" Juan interrupted.

"And who's this Zoldeo?" Roné asked.

"He's the strongest village's leader, he's the leader of Arcadia, they say that his land authority is still growing until today because unlike most of the villages he colonize a village every year, his army is simply undefeatable." Juan answered.

"_True…however despite the rumours, Ramusus insisted on war, and forced us to be in his army, even if we aren't familiar with battles…and that was my big fault; I had once a twin brother, he wasn't able to fight because he was badly injured while he was whale-hunting in the sea, so I replaced him, I entered that war, and we loose it, I lost my left leg as you can see, and when I returned, my brother couldn't hold his wrath over Ramusus so he challenged him in a royal battle, if my brother won the king would give up on wars, and if the king won, my brother shall loose his life…_" and Kura couldn't complete his tale because of tears that filled his eyes.

"Father enough! I told you to forget it!" Zolu said.

"Gah! That bastard! I'm gonna…"Roné shouted while igniting both of his fists.

"Calm down brother, they may hear us" Juan said.

Suddenly the door lock started to turn as someone spoke from behind it: "Hey you, hurry up we'll lock the storage!".

"Damn it! if he found out about you guys, we'll be in trouble" Kura warned Juan and Roné.

To be continued


	5. A mission to rescue the sage

_**Fantasia**_

_**Arc1:**__ Battle of villages_

_**Chapter5:**__A mission to rescue the sage_

Juan and Roné managed to sneak into Sumeria, with the help of Zolu and his father Kura, but a guard is about to enter the room where they are hiding:

"Damn it! we'll be caught!" Roné said in panic.

"No! I have an idea!" Kura said while grabbing the brothers from their collars to toss them in the air.

The guard enters the room, to find that Zolu is giving his father a back massage, with a silly naive expression on both of the father and the son:

"What the hell are you doing?" the guard asked.

"Easy son, can't an old man have his back rubbed by his son?" Kura said.

"Well then hit the road! we are locking the storages immediately" the guard said.

At this moment Juan and Roné were hanging up from an ice chandelier, when Juan noticed that his brother was melting the iced chain with his fist –_that he forget to extinguish_- while his own hands were getting numb from the low temperature, it was a matter of seconds until they both along with the chandelier fell violently on the guard knocking him out.

"Let's…not do it again!" Roné said while he was tottering to gain balance.

"I'm sure that the other guards heard the crash, you guys should hurry up already" Zolu suggested.

"No, I have a better idea" Juan said while dusting ice shards from his clothings.

Moments later two guards entered the room to check the crash sound, but they found the guard, Kura, and Zolu knocked down on the ground, as if they were beaten:

"The beastmen had escaped! They are heading to the royal room!" Kura said.

And with this the soldier bought the trick easily leaving the room quickly, which made a safe opening to the brothers who were taking cover under the icy floor that've been dug quickly by Roné's fire fist.

"That was some idea bro!" Roné said while shaking his fur to get rid of water.

"Speak for yourself!" Juan said while shivering.

"Kids! Focus! This place will be filled soon with soldiers!" Kura warned the young men, then he pulled a small crystal bottle from his pocket and gave it to Juan saying: "Here keep this with you, make sure your sage drink it when he's freed, now follow me!".

And as instructed by the old fisherman, the boys followed him out of the storage but unlike they've expected they skipped the dungeon were the Sumerian usually keep their prisoners:

"Old man! Where are we going to? The dungeon is there!" Roné said to Kura.

"Didn't you hear what I've said earlier? We need to rescue your leader first, he's the only one capable of defeating lord Ramusus" Kura explained.

"But wasn't he defeated before?!" Juan asked.

"No he wasn't! lord Ramusus used a girl named Yera as a hostage to decieve Luffine!" the old man answered.

"Yera! Yera's there?!" Roné said in anger before changing his path, but he was soon pulled back by Juan and Zolu:

"Idiot! they'll catch you like this!" Zolu said before Juan add: "Brother! Calm down! We'll save her later!", but the enraged young man said: "But she's there! I gotta save her!"

"Enough! Zolu we'll save the villagers, and you two will save the sage." Yuka told the three boys.

"Alright!" Roné said trying to calm himself.

And so the young ragon headed toward the dungeon to save the captured beastmen, whereas the other three entered a high tower in the edge of the village.

The tower had a unique conic shape surrounded by a spiral crystal jetting out of a cluster of jagged ice, and the only entrance seems to be a large door locked with some strange lock.

"Hmm the lock seems specially forged, is there any way we can open it?!" Juan asked after examining the door.

"Son when you live with the sea, you may learn many lessons of life" Kura said while tilting his wooden leg before he completes: "But when you work as bartender at the end of your life you learn one thing…" he removed his leg to pull some strange key that resembles to a crab's claw: "You can get anything by making a soldier drunk" as he grinned lightly.

"Old man! You sure are badass…for a ragon!" Roné expressed his surprise.

And so the three made their way through the mysterious tower, ascending to the top, where they've seen some strange light, and heard two persons talking:

"So this is the legendary Luffine the sage of Ardneria?! How depressing!" the first man said.

Few flashes are seen.

"Calm down big brother! His majesty paid us to investigate him not to kill him!" a deeper voice is heard.

"Don't worry, these flame eaters aren't easy to die" the first man said again.

"The sage!" Juan said in a low voice.

"They are torturing hi…" Kura said.

And before he completed his sentence, Roné jumped at the two man recklessly to be repelled violently to the wall.

"Bastards!" Roné said while trying to stand up, "Release the old man already!" he added igniting in flames.

"But his majesty didn't pay us for babysitting…eh big brother?" the deep voice talked.

And so from the shadows the two men emerged, two ragons they were:

A large ragon, with huge muscular build, and short straight hair, he wears a silver chain male and tight dark purple pants, he has a noticeable tatoo (_resembles to a whale tail with three horizontal lines arranged in parallel at its bottom_) on his left shoulder.

Accompanied by a shorter and rather slender ragon, with spiky haircut, smaller eyes, and small light goatee, he wears a sleeveless tight green shirt, with loose blue pants, he has the same tatoo as his brother, but on the right shoulder.

"So old brother…care to torture more people for free?" the large man said.

"Torture?...we may need to kill one of them to make them learn never to interrupt the Zedai brothers when they are working!" the shorter brother said.

"Damn it! he used these two! That's low!" Kura said.

"Who are these guys?!" Juan asked.

"The big one is the young brother Samu, while the shorter one is the old brother Hegi, they were banished by the former sage, because of their continous law breaking, and they'd almost anything for money! They are mercenaries!" Kura answered.

"Stay behind me!" the old ragon said to Juan as he rushed toward the two brothers, Hegi released a powerful water blast from his clapped hands, but Kura jumped highly evading it, to land a powerful kick on the old brother, but he was too slow to evade a slam received from Samu.

"Kids run! They may kill you!" the injured old man said.

Roné walked toward the two men ignoring Kura's orders: "Run?! Nope! you didn't guess old man! As a beastman I can't run from a battle like this, and as a man I can't see my family gettin' hurt without beating the hell out of guys like you!" said the angered man igniting his fists.

"Hehe…looks like I'll enjoy this…eh big brother?" Samu said while clashing his fists together.

Juan encouraged himself and carried an iron bar he found on the floor next to Kura, and joined his brother: "I'll fight too!" he said, making his brother react positively by saying: "You said you two are the Zedai brothers, well be prepare to be defeated by the Rocux brothers!".

To be continued.


	6. The Rocux brothers vs the Zedai brothers

_**Fantasia**_

_**Arc1:**__ Battle of villages_

_**Chapter6:**__ The Rocux brothers vs the Zedai brothers_

And so in order to rescue Luffine the sage, Juan and Roné had to face the mercenary brothers of Sumeria "_The Zedai brothers: Hegi and Samu_":

"Okay bro! I'll take on the big one, you'll have the small one!" Roné said as he was excited, while rushing toward his foe, to enter the battle with a violent fiery punch the knocked Samu a distance back, the latter wiped his mouth and stared toward the beastman giving a scary gaze saying: "Prepare to die!" and in an incredible speed he slammed his foe with his left palm causing the floor to crack under Roné who tried to defend with both of his hands.

"Dammit! He's fast for his size!" Roné said, then he ignited his feet to push himself, but his enemy suprsied him by a horizontal slam with the right palm that sent the beastman to the wall.

In the same time, Juan was trying his best to hit Hegi with the iron bar he's holding, but the latter was too agile for him, finishing his swifty moves with a water blast released from his right palm to send Juan to the wall near his brother.

"Hmm nice view, isn't it big brother?" Samu said with a wide smile.

"Hmph, weaklings, they need hundreads of years in order to achieve our level!" Hegi said while adjusting his hair.

While the two gave their backs to the defeated brothers, a huge fire ball hit them, but it was partially neutralized by Hegi's water barrier, the smoke is lifted to reveal Roné who was angered, igniting his whole body in fire: "This fight had just begun!" he shouted while jumping at Samu delievering a volley of punches and kicks reinforced with flames, Hegi on the other hand recieved a violent blunt from Juan:

"Bastard!" the older ragon brother said.

"Never understimate a beastman!" Juan said giving a sharp stare to his foe.

"Beastman?...what the hell are you talking about brat? You are a human!" Hegi said scorning the shepherd.

"No I'm not!" was Juan's respond.

"Whatever you say…anyway it seems that I'm wasting my magic on you, I can take you on with my bare hands" the ragon boasted while taking a different fighting stance; seperating his legs more than usual, leaning to the front while extending his left arm toward his foe and keeping the right one at the level of his chest: "Here I come!" he shouted, and with incredible speed he slided to Juan, to hit him in the guts with his right hand, followed by a quick slap to with the left one and finsihed with a push from both hands, that made Juan spit some blood.

"Foolish critter! Know your limits!" Hegi insulted Juan before giving his back to him, but a small ice pebble hit him lightly, he turned to see Juan trying to stand, wiping the blood from his chin and smirking: "I told you never to understimate a beastman" he said while pulling the iron bar from the ground.

"Die scum!" the angered ragon yelled as he started to deliever fatal hits to Juan in almost every spot to his body, leaving him laid on the ground with heavy wounds.

Roné noticed what's happening to his brother so he rushed to help him, but unaware he also got hit by a powerful punch from Samu that made him hit the ground ferociously.

"The end!" the large ragon said trying to deliever the final blow to Roné but his hand was hit by the iron bar tossed by Juan, who still didn't collapse yet.

"He's such a persistent fool! eh big brother?" Samu said while rubbing his injured hand.

"I admire that, he should die honorably shouldn't he?" Hegi asked as well with an evil grin.

"Ah…that technique!" the large ragon smirked.

And so Hegi started to do some hand signs, and in an instant Juan found himself getting choked, in a floating water sphere, and it didn't stop here because Samu jumped inside the orb, and started to hit the shepherd with all his might, and with this Juan was trapped in the deadly technique of _underwater execution._

"Juan!" Roné said trying to get up, but he was stopped by Hegi who casted a water current spell making him unable to move under the high water pressure.

On the other hand the young man started to loose sight, as he was getting out of air and the hits on his weak body were getting deadlier, he smirked telling his self: "So this is what it feels to fight for someone you love." remembering some of his childhood memories:

_**A six years old Juan laid on the ground, beaten up with his clothes ripped, he was bullied by some young beastmen who mocked his appearence:**_

_**"Look at this wimpy kid!"…"He has no fur on his body!disgusting bastard"…"His skin is softer than my baby sister's" and other insults that made him cry heavily, but the bad kids were defeated by Roné who stood for his brothers chasing the bullies away while shouting at them: "You goons! Hurt my bro again and the last thing you'll see is my fist!".**_

_**Then Roné headed to his brother helping him to stand up.**_

_**"So…sorry brother! I…" but the tears couldn't let Juan complete his words.**_

_**On the other hand Roné hugged his brother tightly saying: "Nah, nah no more tears for you bro! I'll be always here for you, c'mon wipe those tears, we don't wanna troubles with dad n' mom, stop it! I'll give you my share of dinner if you want!" with his usual sly grin.**_

Those memories warmed Juan's heart, but he was getting hurt badly, he couldn't see his brother defeated like that, so he encouraged himself more and blocked Samu's headbutt, then he wrapped his arms around the ragon's neck tightly, saying to himself: "Brother this time I'll be here for you!".

The vision from outside the sphere got blurry because of the bubbles coming from Samu's struggling to free his neck from Juan…but it was a matter of a minute until Samu fell on the ground unconscious and blood coming out from the gills on his neck, followed by Juan, who stood up slowly coughing water off his lungs.

"Brother?!" Hegi exclamated.

"Hehe…when a ragon is underwater, he uses gills to breath…however those parts are the most sensetive, even a small pressure of mild duration will cause respiration troubles and knock the ragon out for about an hour…I guess reading books isn't that boring after all…eh brother?" Juan explained what happened finishing his sentence with a light smile.

"Bastard!" the ragon insulted Juan and headed toward him saying: "With this torn body of yours, defeating you will…" but he was hit by a ferocious kick from Roné who commented: "Dude! That's my brother you are callin' a bastard! And when someone pick up on my bro…I ain't gonna be happy".

And so the Rocux brothers joined each other to face the angered Hegi, who entered his melee fighting style stance again, Juan barely could keep his balance, but he whispered something in his brother's ear.

Right before the ragon managed to reach them to deliever his first punch, he was blocked by Roné who used his left leg to hold Hegi's left knee, then quickly hit his foe to the face pushing him away.

"How the hell?!" Hegi asked Roné about the way he managed to block his combo.

Juan smiled again and explained: "You thought I was taking hits like that for nothing,…I was memorizing your habits while you deliever your hits, I know my body is weak to block such fast moves, but Roné isn't like me, he's a total tank!".

"Dude that's the first time something nerdy sounds so cool…it must be my name that made it like that!" Roné boasted finishing with a laugh then he added: "But seriously bro you looked scary back then when you defeated that big goon".

"Hehe" Juan blushed.

"Damned fools!" Hegi said while standing up, he wiped his mouth, and faced his palms toward the brothers: "Face the tidal stream!" he shouted releasing a powerful water torrent from his hands.

"Water!..." Juan said in fear as he started to get dizzy.

"Bro! get a hold of yourself!" Roné shouted at his brother.

"Hold?! You bastards will see the true power of my magic!" Hegi said making the current more devestating pushing the two out from the tower to fall toward the jagged icy cluster on the bottom of the prison.

Roné was falling too fast until it was an inch between his head and the giant icicle, but suddenly he stopped falling, he rised his head slowly to see something unusual even in a magic world; he saw his brother holding him with one hand from the belt, while the other hand was drastically stretched from the tower's top to its shoulder.

"What the fu…" Roné exclamated trying to express his surprise but he was interrupted by his brother: "Don't say it!".

"Hehe sorry" Roné apologized then he asked: "But How?".

"I myself don't know, but I have an idea, quickly push yourself more to the ground" Juan instructed his brother.

Meanwhile Hegi was heading slowly toward Kura to get rid of him but suddenly he heard Roné's loud voice: "Ohoy! Fish face!".

He quickly headed to the edge of the tower and looks down asking "How…" but he was surprised by Roné's fiery kick empowered by the elastic force gained from Juan's arm.

Juan's arm returned to its original size: "Wow! That was strange!" he expressed his surprise of his unknown ability.

"Wait a minute!" Roné said then he added: "God! I'm such an idiot!".

"Eh?" Juan asked.

"I could've defeated this dude with ease, but I forgot I can do it!" the beastman answered.

"This is really getting out of control" Juan said.

"I'll kill you flame eaters!" Hegi said preparing a water spell with his hands.

Roné took a deep breath that his stomach bulged.

"Stop it! dad banned this move for you!" Juan warned his brother.

But the latter ignored his brother, and released a powerful fire breath from his mouth, it was simply a devestating attack that swallowed Hegi evaporating his water barrier, piercing the other side of the tower making a long stream of flames that can be seen even from the rebellion camp.

The fire got extinguished, Hegi was dropped unconscious and Roné started to cough smoke, he turned to his brother who was stunned of surprise, he winked asking: "What do you think bro?".

The latter answered: "Never, never do it again!".

Then Roné headed quickly to the injured Kura:

"Old man! You alright?" the beastman asked.

"Yeah I'll live…" the ragon answered, then he added: "Check Luffine, he's more important than me."

At the same time Juan freed the old sage from his shackles:

"Lord Luffine! It's me, Juan, wake up!" the young man siad.

Luffine smiled barely breathing, Juan pulled the bottle Kura gave him earlier and made him drink it, and in mere seconds the weakened old man restored his vigor, which made the brothers wonder why.

Kura simply answered: "When Lord Luffine lost his fight, Lord Ramusus pulled his magic force out his body and liquified it…I sneaked past the guards and contained that magic into the bottle I gave you, so when he drinks it he'll restore what he lost, and then he can…", but Luffine completed instead: "No worry son, I'll take care of Ramusus myself…and this time no tricks!" and so the sage of Ardneria headed toward the royal palace of Sumeria.

To be continued


	7. The invasion comes to an end

_**Fantasia**_

_**Arc1:**__ Battle of villages_

_**Chapter7:**__ The invasion comes to an end_

Juan and his brother Roné managed to free their village's sage Luffine and restore his lost magic power, the latter ordered them to escape while he will take care of Sumeria's leader.

Juan aided his brother –who seems totally passing out- to walk, which made Kura ask: "What's wrong with him?".

"It's his fire breath attack, father prohibited him from using it because it draws out all his energy making him in a critical state" Juan answered, then he noticed that the old ragon is hurt too, " , I believe you'll need a hand too." The young man suggested.

"No, I'll be alright, you go on your way." Kura said.

And so the two brothers exited the tower, but alas they found themselves trapped against a large number of angered guardian ragons, one of them approached saying: "Well, Well, what's this? a beastman and a human sneaked into our village".

"I'm not a hu…" Juan tried to say, but he couldn't because pain is started to flow in his body.

The guards pulled their weapon and approached the brothers slowly, but suddenly a fireball hit them, they turned back to find that the rebellion force had came to the rescue.

"Father!" Juan said with eyes filled with tears.

Rocux rised his hammer in the air and shouted: "My fellows! Charge!" ordereing all the fighting beastmen to attack the ragons, and it was a matter of minutes when the Ardnerian managed to defeat all the Sumerians.

"Juan! My boy! What happenened?! You look broken to pieces, and what happened to your brother?" the worried fahter asked his son.

"It's along story fahter but first let's take Roné ba…" but Juan was interrupted by his father unusually hugging him tightly, as he felt warm drops falling on his hair, he wanted to talk but he didn't, "I don't want to loose my family" the father said, and his son responded by nodding with his head.

"But how did you manage to come so fast? I mean there're guards on the village borderline too" Juan asked.

"We've seen your signal", the fahter answered, then Rocux turned his face away making a disgusted face expression: "Hmph…it was that reckless brother of yours who got rid of the guards in the village. " He added.

"Demetri?! He helped you out?" Juan said expressing surprise, with a joy in his tone.

"Enough talking about that brat!" the father said while carrying Roné on his shoulder then he added: "We still have to free the women and the kids, let's go.".

And with just few steps, an earhtquake hit the place, and explosions are seen coming from the royal palace.

"This is great!" a beastman said.

"Lord Luffine's wrath!" another one boasted.

"Victory is ours!" a third one added.

And as the beastmen expected, the royal Sumerian palace was falling like a dead tree; the walls were simply bearking as if they were made of thin glass, the pillars were shaking like they were shivering from fear, and from the windows a red fiery light was flashing once in a while.

All this mess made the inhabitant of the castle evacuate the place in panic, followed by the imprisoned ones who were broken free with the help of Zolu.

"Everyone leave Sumeria at once!" a beastman shouted, and so the Ardnerian started running away to the borderlines of the ragon's village, but Juan was standing idly looking left and right like he was looking for something, a beastman grabbed his arm and pulled him saying: "Let's go Juan! It's dangerous to stay here!".

But Juan refused and ran toward the palace telling himself: "This is bad! Zolu isn't here with the escapees, which means that he's still in the castle, he might've been captured, I have to save him!".

Meanwhile Luffine the sage was ascending to the highest of the palace to face Ramusus, the more steps he makes the stronger his released magic becomes causing his surrounding to tremble until he reached a large gate but it was turned into nothing but mere dust with one punch.

"Ramusus! We settle this here and now!" the old sage shouted, and his fearsome voice echoed all over the falling building.

Ramusus on the other hand was on his throne, shortly before he walks toward Luffine: "Great…you are asking for a death fight?" he asked.

"This time it's me or you…I shall never let you harm my clan anymore, nor let you have the Yusseir's Judgement!" the old sage answered, as each on e of the combatants gave the other a cruel stare filled with rage.

At the same time, Juan was climbing the palace that'll soon turn into rubble, he took a turn in in the hall to be surprised by a familiar person; a beast girl with black flowing hair, she was yera, the sage's granddaughter.

"Aren't you Juan Rocux?" she asked.

"Um…yeah, please leave this place immediately, it's going to crumble soon!" he answered, but soon the floor broke apart and the two fell to the rubble.

Few minutes later, Juan woke up outside the palace which turned into nothing but shaking pillars and stairs that holds the highest room where the fight between the sages is still on, he turned left and right, Yera was there too but she was unconscious, he lefted his hand to see ashes on it, he stared a bit farther to see the shadow of a man, and the sparke made by his cigarette, "Demetri! Is that you?" Juan asked him but the latter said nothing but: "Juan, don't die…" before he disappears like a mirage.

At the top of the Sumerian royal palace, the ferocious battle occurs, Luffine and Ramusus' powers clashes, but it seems that they are really at an equal level.

Both of them stepped back to prepare for another move, they were breathing heavily as wounds were seen on their bodies, but the two seemed intent to defeat his foe.

"Such impressive magic power and skill at such young age, isn't it better if it was used to make peace roam in your village?" Luffine asked.

"Heh, nonesense! old man!" Ramusus answered, with a disgusted expression.

"It grieves me to hurt the person who was the son of my old friend, so please enough of this meaningless fight, take your village away, and let our clans live in peace." The old sage said.

"Yusseir's Judgement…I want it as a price for the peace you seek." Ramusus said with a crazy stare.

"Enough please!" Zolu interrupted the battle while running toward Luffine to face him while trying to protect the sage of his clan, "Lord Ramusus please, let's not go any further facing the beastmen, they don't really want to fight us!" the young ragon said to his lord.

Ramusus calmed a little bit, but then he slashed Zolu in the back with an ice blade, tossing him toward Luffine, who was enraged like he never was before, he turned to the water sage and shouted: "Reckless brat! To hurt a child of your own flesh and blood! Did the devil took over your soul?!".

"Enough lecturing, old geezer! Those who stand in their king's way…ought to pay with their lives!" Ramusus answered emotionlessly.

"Then nothing is left but…" Luffine said, while shredding clothes of his right arm, "Judgement" he added.

Suddenly Luffine's right arm started to glow in golden light, as some strange ancient symbols started to slide from his shoulder, noted by Ramusus who said in fear: "Yusseir's Judgement! It was sealed inside you all time!".

The old sage ignored the younger one and started to incantate while pointing his fist to the sky, that shined in golden light as well: "O' blessed light, the light given to the chosen one, shine…and fall from heavens…"

The light in the sky was noticed by Juan who said: "This light…it's warm, it's nostalgic" as his wounds were healed perfectly.

Zolu on the other hand was stunned of the immense power he felt while this spell was casted that he noted: "This light, it makes me feel sick, like it's strangling me.".

While Ramusus couldn't move a finger standing startled looking at the sky" The light that obliterates anyone who's not of pure Zheinian blood…and all those who are not following the commandements of the ancient Zheinian clan shall perish when this light fall upon them" he described remembering the truth of this light that his fahter once taught him.

"Make this evil of your enemies descend to the deepest abyss, to be forgotten for the rest of eternity...I call you from above,Yusseir's Jud…" Luffine was about to complete his incantations when he saw Ramusus on his knees and his eyes gave the stare of those who are about to die, the old sage's merciful heart got him before wrath did, and so he disabled that spell before it's too late.

A moment of silence it was, then Luffine aided Zolu to walk as they started leaving the rubble, the old sage gave his oppenent a last stare saying: "This ends here, take your clan and leave at once…"

To be continued


	8. The victory is ours…but

_**Fantasia**_

_**Arc1:**__ Battle of villages_

_**Chapter8(Finale): **__The victory is ours…but_

Finally, the ragons invasion came to an end after the defeat of their leader, the water dwellers retreat to the sea again, leaving the land, and with this the beastmen of Ardneria can feel free again.

They were gathered in the village square around their leader, all in silence looking further for a word from the victorious old sage.

"Bretheren beastmen…we gather here today for something important that may change the life we used to have…" Luffine said in a serious voice making all the citizen stunned waiting for the rest.

"From today until the next weekend…Festivals! Festivals will be! Suppers! Drinks! Dancers! And all the joy we can have all the week long!" he added while jumping in joy with a silly accent.

Of course the citizens were a bit disappointed of the announcement as they expected something more serious, standing staring at their leader.

"You do like festivals, don't you?" Luffine asked his people, who nodded with their heads,: "Then what the hell are you waiting for?! Get the streets ready and prepare the supper you imbeciles!" he shouted at them making them rush to their homes to prepare for the great victory celebration.

Juan was in his room at that time, he had unlike -his brother- his wounds healed perfectly, and enigmatically by the holy light produced from Luffine's spell, he was as usual reading the adventures book he got from Roné as a birthday gift, when he heard his brother voice shouting.

He headed down to the yard, to see his brother who was wrapped in bandages, trying to run but his mother was holding him while carrying a small bottle of ointment.

-**Roné & Juan's mother:** Known as Mel Rocux, she's a large beastwoman in her late fourties, she has distinctive round green eyes, a circular face, and a long braided red hair that Roné seems to inherit from her along with the diagonal dark lines on his cheeks, she wears a pink dress, and a sky blue bandana that covers the top of her head-

"Calm down kid! The doctor said you need this to heal your wounds faster!" Mel said while pulling her son.

"No freakin' way mom! I ain't putting that slime on my fur! It burns like hell!" the son said struggling to escape his mother's iron fist.

"Okay then no dinner for you lad, unless you have the remedy!" the mother said, then she added: "Why don't you be more like Juan, he's such a good behaving young man!".

"Mom I'm eighteen now! I can take my own decisions!" Roné said.

"Basically you are still seventeen, if you count that we are twins" Juan interrupted, then he added politely: "Morning mom, I hope you are well." Finishing his words with a gentle smile.

"See? he's such a nice kid!" Mel told Roné.

"He's a kid not a man like me!" Roné answered his mothers words rudely, but he was punched hardly on the head by Mel who scolded him: "Don't say such things to your brother, he saved your life earlier! You should be thankful!".

And so the three stuck for an hour in a futile argument of Juan trying to convince his brother to take his medecine.

However hours later the two brothers were sitting on a barn's rooftop, when Roné started to scratch his stomach and complaining: "That damn slime! I can't bloody believe how it hurts!".

"But it's for your own good" Juan answered.

"What the hell! Why don't you take some aswell? then you'll get why I hate this thing!" Roné asked.

"I'd take it, but it won't hurt me as much as you do, in the end I have less fur than anybody around here (except on my legs and arms), besides I'm not injured at all." Juan answered.

"Liar! I remember when we fought those fish bros, you had blunts everywhere, and you were bleeding like you were on per…" but Roné was interrupted by his brother saying: "Don't say it!".

"I don't bloody get you, what'd happen to you if you heard a bad word from time to time?" Roné asked with a sly grin.

"The same thing that happens when I mention the parrot…"Juan answered with a smile.

"Shut up! And it was an accident!" the beastman said in frustration.

And so a peaceful day passed, and when night came, the beastmen celebrated their victory, in a joyful festival; Feast tables were set in all streets, kids were wearing their most beautiful colorful clothings, men were setting torches and lanterns that hanged from their houses, women were preparing all sorts of food in large cauldrons spread about in front of every house, the village square was tunred into a large round table, and by time people were gathered around the large fire that was set in the middle, and each person may tell about a story he knows, or an adventure he had.

"He was this huge!" Roné said to the other young beastmen while spreading his arms widely, to continue: "But Juan murdered him like a boss!".

"Not really, he was about my father's size, he's not that gargantuan, besides I didn't kill him, he just passed out!" Juan corrected for his brother making everybody else laugh.

"Dammit! Juan why are you such an ass!?" Roné complained, then he remembered how Juan's arm stretched all the tower long earlier, so he started pull his brother's arm with all might.

"What are you doing Roné? stop it!" Juan said in pain.

"Show them that cool magic you did there, you know when your arm became as long as the tower!" the beastman said to his brother

"You know I can't pull it whenever I want, besides I just don't know how to do it." the brother apologized.

When everyone heard this they calmed for a second then they were gathered around Juan and started to examine him which made him feel a little disturbed: "Guys? What's wrong?" he asked before they smiled at him and someone commented: "You are brilliant Juan, I can't believe I was bullying you all that time when we were kids."

"You really are something!" another one added.

"I always knew that you are a true beastmen even if you are hairless" a third one said.

"Cheers for Juan Rocux the hero that rescued our sage and village!" a fourth one shouted while holding a large goblet of beer, making the rest of the men shout aswell "Cheers!".

"But guys I just…"

Suddenly Juan was lightly hit by a small pebble, he turned to see a shadow of a man escaping in the street corner, he apologized to his friends and left quicklyfollowing that man until he reached a dead end.

"Who are you? And what do you want?" he asked.

The man came out to the light to reveal himself to be Zolu, but he looked beaten up, and his right arm is broken, while his right eye is blunted and all black.

"Zolu? What happened to you man?" the worried Juan asked.

The ragon smiled answering: "Hehe, I was banished from the village and this…" he points to his broken arm! "Is my goodbye gift from my people."

"Banished? Why?" Juan asked his friend.

"Well I helped you out guys, and I stood in the face of the king, so I…you know got banished from my clan for the rest of my life…" Zolu answered sadly.

"This can't be helped, however come on join us, you too helped us in the end" Juan told his friend pulling him into the crowd.

The beastmen looked disgusted at Zolu, and one if them clapped his fisted, while another one carried a knife, but the sage appeared, and so everyone calmed down.

"What's the meaning of this?" Luffine asked.

"You see my lord, Zolu had been b…" Juan tried to answer, but he was interrupted by the sage: "That question wasn't for you my boy." Then he turned toward the other beastmen and scolded them: "This fine young ragon was the reason of what we are now, so be grateful that God sent us such a gift, show the guest some respect…or else" he finished his words by a scary look.

The beastmen felt a bit of depression of their hasty reaction, then one of them approached Zolu and grabbed his broken arm gently saying: "Here I'm a doctor, follow me to the clinic, I'll wrap it for you better."

Juan smiled from the bottom of his heart seeing how his people started finally to abondon their ignorance.

"So what are we waitin' for? Cheers to Juan!" a beastman shouted, shortly before everyone else did, ironically they got all drunk but Juan, who left the place to some rooftop where he laid back staring at the clear starry sky, thinking of how a single event changed the people's view toward him, and how he turned from the weakling shepherd, into a respected beastmean despite his appearence.

…

But when midnight came, a stranger from out the village appraoched the frontier, he starred a while at Ardneria and started to talk to himself:

"Ah, Ardneria, the homeland of beastmen, you brutal clan, I'm impressed how you could've survived this far…but in the end there's no need for you in our new world that'll soon be born".

Few moments and the man did some strange hand sign; he faced each palm to another, with the left over the right and started to incantate: "O' blessed law, the justice guarded by the chosen one, shine…and fill the heavens…Make those who are not of your kind perish to none but mere memories…to be forgotten for the rest of eternity...I call you from above…Yusseir's order…Descend!".

With these words the sky above Ardneria started to glow in golden light, and shiny runes started to float from the earth to ascend highly, noted by Juan who said: "It's like that day! The same light! The same warmness and nostalgia!", aswell as Zolu who was staring from the clinic's window, he put his hand on his mouth to say: "Is this…Lord Luffine's spell?!"

The runes floated fastly and arranged into a large symbol in the sky; it ressembles to two square shaped jewels intersected through one angle from each, the symbol's light got sharper as it covered the whole village".

After this the man left the village like a ghost.

Juan woke up in the morning as he passed out from that light and hurried to examine his village but it was too late, for what he saw was unexpected.

To be continued


	9. It had just started

_**Fantasia**_

_**Arc2:**__ The Quest_

_**Chapter1:**__ It had just started_

In the middle of their celebration of victory, the beastmen witnessed an omnipotent magic, that was recognized by Juan to be nostalgic, the young man was knocked unconscious for the light was too strong.

He woke up in the morning heading to the village, but…he found out that his village, his clan, his family and his friend Zolu, and even the powerful old sage of their village…had been petrified.

True, they were all transformed into stone statues, he panicked not knowing what to do, he ran like crazy in the streets of Ardneria shouting loudly hoping that someone is still "_alive_"…but it was useless, he checked every house, every corner, every room, everyone was reduced to dead rocks.

He stood on a rooftop not believing what has happened, he prayed for God that this is just a nightmare, but alas soon he realized that he's the only Ardnerian standing alive in the village of stones.

He sat embracing his legs, shedding tears like crazy, shouting highly in the sky: "Why? Why? Just when I finally felt that I'm a beastman! Not a burden to my family!…They…They…are gone!" but no one was there to hear the poor young man.

But in all that sadness he remembered the warmness he felt the night the merciless spell fell upon his clan, it somehow reminded him of the warmness he always felt when he's surrounded by his family, the wamness he felt when his father used to carry him along with Roné taking them home, the warmness he felt when his mother hugs him when he feels sad, the warmness he feels whenever Roné or Demetri stands to protect him from other beastmen.

He wiped his tears saying: "I'll save you…with my honor as a beastman…I swear that I'll save you, mom, dad, Roné, Demetri, Zolu, Lord Luffine, and everyone…I swear!".

He quickly jumped and headed to the library since he remembered that he read something before about petrification, it was the 32th book in the second shelf, a book of diseases caused by magic, he rushed to the 133th page, where there was a paragraph about petrification and mind blindness, it read like this:

_"__**Petrification:**__ This rare case, caused usually by strong curses, or by looking directly in the eyes of a gorgon, and sometimes by being infected with the deadly poison of the basilisc, leads to the full or partial transformation of a body into solid stone…_

_The case itself isn't deadly, but abondoning the petrified bodies without treatment for too long may lead their life force to perish causing death in most conditions._

…_.The only known treatment to this disease is the legendary spell __**Purus**__, form of pure magic manipulation __**Empyrean magic**__, the cure with this spell is instant and flawless."_

"Hmm…I need to know more about this empyrean magic…" Juan told himself and so he headed to the magic bookshelf, were he took a big book named "The Byblos of ancient & modern magic" where he found a paragraph on the the 598th page speaking about it:

_"__**Emyrean magic (also known as the Pure magic):**__ One of the rarest forms of magic, it's based on manipulating the particles of magic produced by the casters body aswell as those found in the environnement, it has many varieties, from the miraculous healing effects to exorcism and demon binding…_

_The magic has strict conditions that are usually impossible to find in most people, but the most noticeable of them all, is __**those who carries pure human blood, and who were born with an excessive magic force amount**__…"_

"Damn it! then I cannot learn it!" Juan said to himself realizing that he can't use empyrean magic, since he barely have magic force in his body, in addition that he isn't human.

"What to do?" he asked himself then he added: "But I can't give it up yet!", he pulled some sort of magazines from his bag and started to flip pages quickly.

The magazine was "The monthly Foreteller", a popular magazine in the whole Féenian empire, it carries the news of all the villages around the empire, of different topics.

Juan was sure that he reads something interesting about magic, it was an article he found in the 15th page of the magazine, it was talking about the famous "Tower of Grimoires"

-**Tower of Grimoires:** It used to be considered as a part of the military force of the capital 20 years ago, but soon they rebelled and gained their independance, it's a community of mercenary mages, excelled in all types of known magic in the era, the village gained the name "Tower" because it's located in the north-eastern sea in the form of a high tower surrounded by dangerous whirlpools, their village symbol resembles somehow to an ancient Ankh (A cross-like symbol of Pharaonic civilization) with the head taking the shape of a twister-

"I have no choice but to travel to that tower, and hire a mage that can perform empyrean magic…it's the only hope for my clan now…" Juan said to himself.

And so our hero set for his journey, carrying food supplies with him, a world map, a compass, his saving's of money-and his fahter's- in case he needed to buy something, and his staff that he used to graze goats with it.

He walked to the entrance of his village and turned to it, shedding some tears saying: "Just wait…I'll save you all!" before running away to his journey seeking the tower of grimoires.

He started his journey by taking the plains of Zellia, which are famous to be a commercial roads between the villages of humans, and also famous of hoodlums and thieves, but it's always safer than the mountain roads, which are hard to cross, he walked for a whole day until he reached a day distance from the rich village of Clavia, where the glowing towers can be seen, but the night was there before the young man, so he decided to camp for tomorrow.

He set fire using flints he found on the road, and picked up some sausages, and started to roast them on the flames, then he remembered how he used to go camping with Demetri and Roné when he was ten years old, and how always his share ends up eaten by Roné who complains that his food was burned, he smiled a bit, saying: "Good times…" but suddenly a man approached him.

The man was tall with an unshaven beard and a noticeable scar on the right eye, with ragged clothings, but the most noted thing is a golden fancy key chain that swings from his pant.

"Hey boy! Is it possible that you have cigarettes?" the man asked.

Juan's eyes were stuck on the key chain that carried a heart and some butterflies -Which is obviously not a manly style- then he answered politely: "No sir, my apologizes, I don't smoke.".

The man then laughed loudly and poked Juan's head saying: "Good boy then…but beware, these roads aren't for good boys like you, farewell" before he left the young man who was interested and suspecting something wrong.

"He sure doesn't look like a good guy to me, and that key chain, it seems stolen…however that's none of my business" Juan told himself, but curiousity couldn't let him alone, he followed the man secretly, until he arrived at a vast camp placed in a small crater, this time he was sure that this is a gang of thieves, as he saw many chests, and jewelries, the men were about fifteen gathered around a large fire in the middle of the camp.

A man was seen there sitting with a large bottle of boose, he was taking a sip from time to time, and yells at the others, it was for sure their leader.

The man who asked Juan earlier for the cigarettes appraoched the leader.

"Barth! Where were you? You swine!" the leader aksed in a harsh language.

"I'm sorry boss, I needed to smoke and the boys have no cigarettes left, so I looked nearby." He answered.

"Fool!" the boss scolded his minion, "What if someone discovered us!" he added.

"Don't worry boss, it was no one but a mere lad, he doesn't even seem rich to be robbed!" the minion answered.

Soon another thief approached, but this time what were he carrying was interesting, he was carrying a knocked out young woman, a human girl she was…

"Oi Saimon! What'cha holdin'?" the leader asked.

Barth got angered when he was her shouting: "Saimon you bastard! Why did you bring her here!"…

"Whereas you only robbed her key chain, I robbed the whole booty!" Saimon answered the other man.

And so Saimon removed the girl's coat, with a lustful stare, but Barth punched him saying: "Not in front of everyone!".

"Ho, Ho, do we have a saint here?" Saimon said, starting an argument between him and Barth, but the leader yelled at them: "Nuff' Saimon take that harlot and begone!"

And so he had nothing but to obey, he took the girl behind a carriage, Juan witnessed this, he couldn't take it as anger was filling him strangely, he took his staff and shoved it under a rock nearby and started to push with all his might saying: "You bastards! This is unforgiveable!"

To be continued


End file.
